#54
“Who’s dying? Don’t say such unlucky things.”
He stood up, stretching his stiff body. The climax of the entire play was just beginning.
He found a familiar name on his pager and connected the call. After a short dial tone, as soon as the other party answered, Oh-yul spoke in a leisurely, relaxed voice.
“Esper Choi Seon-woo, it’s time to release the dogs that have been trained to obey without other thoughts. Get them ready.”
The person on the other end of the pager laughed briefly at those words.
-You sold Lee Ho-woo’s photo and now you’re putting it to good use?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
-Playing innocent.
On the other end of the phone, Choi Seon-woo chuckled and briefly replied that he understood. The call was extremely short, and the content was meaningful.
Joo Si-yeo raised her eyebrows, but knowing that the man in front of her wasn’t the type to give explanations one by one, she didn’t bother to question him.
Anyway, as long as the result was good for them, it didn’t matter how they got there.
“More importantly, is your lover’s name Lee Ho-woo?”
And more important than Oh-yul’s sinister intentions right now was the fact that she had found out the lover’s name.
“Sounds like a man’s name.”
“It is a man. Is there a problem?”
“There’s no problem. It’s just…”
It was just a bit unexpected that the person Oh-yul was so desperately following was a man. She had thought it would be a pretty woman, even if a bit foul-mouthed.
Joo Si-yeo tried to imagine what Lee Ho-woo might look like and let out a small “Hmm…” No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t picture a suitable face.
“My dedicated Guide is a man too, you know.”
Ha Eun-chan took Oh-yul’s side, saying what’s the problem with them being the same gender. Ha Eun-chan’s Guide was male to match his need to stay mostly outside the city. He was a tall, well-built, friendly-looking handsome man who matched well with Ha Eun-chan in both Guiding and personality.
“Speaking of which, I should contact Gunwoo hyung. He was really worried when I said I had to come here today.”
Ha Eun-chan took out his phone, skillfully dialed a number, and put it to his ear. As he waited for the other party to answer, he waved his hand gently towards Oh-yul and Joo Si-yeo as he left the laboratory, then cheerfully opened his mouth.
“Gunwoo hyung, it’s Eun-chan.”
Joo Si-yeo briefly watched his retreating figure as he made the call with a bright smile, then clicked her tongue shortly. That idiot Ha Eun-chan, is he going to get soaked in the rain? She muttered in a tone of contempt, then turned to look at Oh-yul.
“If you really feel like you’re going to rampage, call me. I can hit you a few times to bring you to your senses.”
“Why would I call you? I should call my Guide.”
“You have a Guide to call even with your trash matching rate? Who’s going to come for you?”
Despite her mocking words, Oh-yul maintained an enigmatic expression without saying anything particular. With an ambiguous attitude that was neither affirmative nor negative, he slowly pulled up one corner of his mouth.
“Ugh! You really have a bad personality.”
Joo Si-yeo shuddered at Oh-yul’s ambiguous attitude and left with a huff.
Left alone in the laboratory in an instant, he fiddled with the pager on his wrist.
Lee Ho-woo will definitely come to me.
He promised he would come when I’m sick.
The man who muttered as if giving himself a suggestion closed his heavy eyelids deeply and let out a long breath. Fatigue he hadn’t tasted in a very long time washed over him like a wave.
The rain was still pouring incessantly outside.
***
The Esper with a pale face sat in the office, shuffling papers. In front of him, Han Seong-won was looking down at him with a completely terrified face. Even while pouring energy into the air saying he would go on a rampage, Oh-yul calmly returned to work.
Perhaps because of this, neither Han Seong-won nor the other Espers took his statement about going on a rampage seriously.
‘I plan to go on a rampage from now on, but the management complex will continue to operate normally both now and in the future.’
At Oh-yul’s declaration to the gathered Espers and Guides, the Espers thought the man had finally gone crazy. Meanwhile, rain mixed with hail was still pouring down as if the sky had been punctured.
Those who had been stirring, saying they should escape before the S-class Esper exploded, only realized that his words weren’t a joke when they met Oh-yul’s clear gaze and cold reason, maintained even as his eyes turned completely blue with no trace of black.
Oh-yul didn’t particularly try to stop those fleeing the city. Most of the Espers and Guides who had been on the minister’s leash, and high-ranking non-manifested officials affiliated with the management complex, fled to other cities to escape this city.
All of this happened in just two days.
Not a single line of news about an S-class Esper about to go on a rampage, which should have been properly announced, was released.
It wasn’t that Oh-yul particularly controlled the media. It was simply because those who fled to escape death didn’t report it. The articles only talked about the sudden climate anomaly.
They didn’t take the initiative to expose their own shame. They just quietly held their breath, hoping that their shame would be swept away all at once with the Esper’s rampage. And when everything was over, they would feel relieved. Ah, we can start over, they would think. They called Espers monsters, but looking at this, it was actually hard to tell who was more of a monster.
The lack of humanity is six of one, half a dozen of the other for both sides.
Oh-yul checked the last report that Han Seong-won had brought with an indifferent face.
It briefly described the fact that the last high-ranking official remaining in the complex had left the city last night as if fleeing, and the personal information of the Espers escorting them. The faces of the Espers who were likely to be the minister’s pawns were particularly familiar.
Are those the ones we encountered in front of the subway with Ho-woo?
It seemed Kim Dong-cheol hadn’t just been sitting around. Not that it would make any difference anyway.
Oh-yul put down the paper and rolled his stiff neck from side to side. Following his shaking head, a headache pounded, causing dizziness. His mind, already pushed to the limit, fiercely sought his pair, complaining of extreme fatigue.
“But really…”
Are you going to rampage?
Han Seong-won’s question, reading the atmosphere, was buried without leaving his lips. Should I seriously run away if he says yes? No, more than that, it was surprising that there was a crazy Esper about to rampage right in front of him, and that this was his superior.
It felt a bit unreal because the ticking time bomb himself was too peaceful.
Han Seong-won, who had been standing with a slightly stupid face, was quickly pulled back to reality thanks to Oh-yul addressing him.
Oh-yul quickly grasped what question Han Seong-won couldn’t bring himself to ask. He calmly placed the paper he was holding on the desk and stared intently at Han Seong-won.
“Do you think I’m faking the rampage?”
The cold-blooded Esper, his nerves on edge, replied coldly.
“Esper Han Seong-won, do you think life is a joke?”
“No, no! It’s just that you look too normal…”
“I see. Perhaps you wanted to see me howling like a beast and rolling on the floor.”
“…Well…”
Oh-yul responded sharply but then deeply furrowed his brow at the headache that once again rang through his head.
Outside, rain mixed with large hailstones began to fall again. The sound of ice chunks fiercely hitting the ground was deafening.
“That’s not what I meant…”
Listening to Han Seong-won’s voice full of injustice, Oh-yul habitually tapped his pager.
It was time to wrap things up now that the minister’s last pawns had fled. He calmly stated the facts.
“Actually, I’ve been rampaging for two days.”
“…What?! Whaaaat?!”
Han Seong-won exclaimed and stepped back a couple of steps. What have you been doing for two days? His eyes, mixed with a reddish tint, widened greatly and then quickly softened.
“Chief, your joke is a bit late.”
At Han Seong-won’s words, which even had a hint of laughter, Oh-yul flatly added, “Does it look like a joke?” At this, Han Seong-won’s face, still smiling, turned pale white.
“No, really? Is even S-class rampage different?”
“It won’t be much different from now on. Just in case, have the Espers ready around.”
I might really sweep away the city.
At the casual mutter that followed, Han Seong-won’s expression mixed with shock. Oh-yul, who had been staring intently at that expression, slowly got up. With each of his steps, his heavy feet dragged. The energy he had desperately suppressed until now flowed out, leaving a thick frost trail of white tracks following his footsteps.
Leaving the building and taking a position in the center of the complex’s wide open space, he skillfully manipulated the pager on his wrist.
With a light touch, he turned on the screen and pulled up an unregistered device to press the call button.
Lee Ho-woo.
Come to me to keep the promise you made to me.
And declare here that you are my owner, holding my leash tight.
Oh-yul’s lips twisted with anticipation and anxiety.
As the monotonous dial tone began to ring, Oh-yul willingly threw away his reason to the storm shaking him.
The energy that had been suppressed all this time explosively swept through the surroundings. Cold chill engulfed the entire management complex.
